Clinton behind unrest, Putin claims

Vladimir Putin
has accused the US of orchestrating public unrest on Russia’s streets after last Sunday’s disputed parliamentary election, in a Cold War-style outburst certain to damage US-Russia relations.

In his first comments on three days of anti-Kremlin protests, the Russian Prime Minister alleged that
Hillary Clinton
, the US Secretary of State, had deliberately encouraged his political opponents to take to the streets in Moscow and St Petersburg.

“She sent a signal to some activists inside the country," Mr Putin told a meeting of his supporters. “They got the message and started active work with the support of the US State Department."

Mrs Clinton angered the Kremlin after she declared that the vote, which international observers said was riddled with fraud, was neither free nor fair. Around 1000 protesters have been arrested since Sunday’s election but anti-Kremlin activists are still planning a big nationwide protest tomorrow which tens of thousands of people have said on the internet they will attend.

If even half of those people turn up there are likely to be violent clashes and particularly in Moscow where the authorities have only sanctioned a protest of 300 people.

Russia’s biggest home-grown social networking site, Vkontakte, said it had come under pressure from the FSB security service to shut down opposition pages being used to organise the protests, but had so far refused to do so.

Mr Putin’s United Russia Party comfortably won Sunday’s vote with just under 50 per cent of the vote but its support fell by 15 per cent. Critics said that in reality it had probably struggled to win more than 40 per cent of the vote but that systematic vote-rigging had helped prop it up.